Not him too!

Senegal's president Abdoulaye Wade has been widely praised (including by yours truly) as one of the new generation of African leaders. He has been a tireless campaigner for pan-African ideals as well as more concrete measures like economic and political reform throughout the continent as well as a more equitable trade relation between Africa and the west. However in the last few years, Wade has shown some signs of intolerance toward dissent. While nowhere near as severe as thugs like Robert Mugabe or even strongmen like Yoweri Museveni, some of the signs from Senegal's chief executive have been troubling, particular his targetting of the private press.

Yesterday, Senegalese authorities shut down Sud FM, probably the country's most influential private radio station. Sud FM landed in hot water for interviewing a hardline leader of the MFDC, a group that wants the southern Casamance region to secede from Senegal. The government said Sud FM's interview had posed a threat to state security, according to the BBC. Rebroadcasts of the interview were banned and the case had been referred to the state prosecutor.

The move was widely condemned in a common editorial published or aired in some 20 private press outlets, including made of Sud's commercial rivals. The editorial noted that the independent media also ran a common editorial in July 2004 after the arrest of another journalist for dubious motives. The editorial condemned Wade's government for being being "so expert in smokescreens and so prompt to invent pretexts" and accused the regime of having a plan to liquidate the Sud press group.

The irony of Wade's war against the private press is that it was precisely that independent media that helped propel him to the presidency in 2000. During that year's presidential elections, the private press was widely credited for pre-empting attended fraud by the then Socialist Party regime by broadcast precinct-by-precinct results even before they were officially announced... and presumably before they could be "fixed."

Perhaps Wade confused this with loyalty to his person and has been shocked that the press hasn't shirked its civic duty now that opposition leader has become president of the Republic.